Catalog Archive
Auction 126, Lot 800

"Chippeway Squaw & Child", McKenney and Hall

Subject: Native Americans

Period: 1838 (dated)

Publication: History of the Indian Tribes of North America

Color: Black & White

Size:
10 x 13 inches
25.4 x 33 cm
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Between 1836 and 1842 McKenney & Hall published History of the Indian Tribes in a three volume portfolio set. It is considered on of the most important works on North American Indians.
Thomas Lorraine McKenney was Superintendent of Indian Affairs under the presidents Madison, Monroe, John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Jackson. His keen interest in the customs and beliefs of the Indian tribes led him to commission Charles Bird King to paint the portraits of Indians whom he had met or had heard about. With the help of James Hall, a frontier lawyer, judge, newspaper editor, and author, McKenney assembled the portraits into an important work on the society, customs, and costume of the Native Americans.
The majority of the original paintings were lost to fire at the Smithsonian Institution in 1865. The beautifully rendered lithographs are the only record we have of the paintings executed by Bird.

This fine stone lithograph is on a full sheet measuring 15.1" x 21.3". There are two lithographs with the same title, one showing the mother carrying the child in a baby carrier and this image with the baby on the ground and the mother preparing to breast feed. The detail of the carrier is exceptional as it shows how Indian children were securely held. A fine example with full margins.

References:

Condition: A

A beautiful example with full margins which is rare for these lithographs because so many were trimmed and framed in the past. With a delicate touch of red color added to blush the cheeks. A fine example less a little light marginal toning at edges and one marginal tear at lower left edge well away from image.

Estimate: $600 - $800

Unsold

Closed on 12/3/2008

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